The present invention relates a plate removal apparatus in a rotary printing press, which removes an old plate set on a plate cylinder from the plate cylinder.
A plate removal apparatus of this type generally employs a structure for preventing a removed old plate from entering into the printing press and contacting an inking device in the printing press. A plate removal guide mechanism is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-77968. The plate removal guide structure disclosed in this reference has a cassette swingably supported by frames and having an old plate storage unit for storing an old plate and an actuator for moving the cassette between a plate mounting position and a retreat position.
In this arrangement, the cassette is moved to the plate mounting position upon operating the actuator, and the distal end of the cassette is opposed to the plate fixing unit of the plate cylinder. In this state, when the plate cylinder is rotated almost one revolution, an old plate whose leading and trailing edges are unfixed from the plate fixing unit of the plate cylinder is stored in the old plate storage unit. In this manner, since the removed old plate is stored in the old plate storage unit, the old plate will not fluctuate or enter into contact with the inking device in the printing press.
The conventional plate removal apparatus described above requires the old plate storage unit for storing an old plate, a large cassette is required. The large cassette narrows the work space between printing units to degrade workability in maintenance and inspection. A large actuator is required to move the large cassette, resulting in a large, complicated apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a plate removal apparatus in a rotary printing press, in which workability in maintenance and inspection is improved.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compact, simple plate removal apparatus in a rotary printing press.
In order to achieve the above objects of the present invention, there is provided a plate removal apparatus in a rotary printing press, which removes outside a printing unit a plate unfixed from a plate fixing unit of a plate cylinder in the printing unit, comprising a first guide member falling inside the printing unit in removing the plate from the plate cylinder to guide the plate removed from the plate cylinder outside the printing unit, and a regulating member interlocked with falling operation of the first guide member to prevent the plate guided by the first guide member from entering into the printing unit.